


Carpe Puer

by bevsmrsh



Category: Dead Poets Society, Dead Poets Society (1989)
Genre: I kinda made Charlie a little mean? Oh well, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-01 19:36:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15780699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bevsmrsh/pseuds/bevsmrsh
Summary: It’s Todd Anderson’s first year at Welton and his last year of being in his shell. His charasmatic and admittedly attractive roommate Neil Perry introduces him to his friends and through the influence of their English teacher John Keating they begin to realize that life is not all straight lines and following orders. They begin to explore their own interests and one another, discovering that maybe falling in love isn’t the answer to their problems, but is certainly a step in the right direction.





	Carpe Puer

**Author's Note:**

> Yeet @nuwandaforever @bevsmrsh find me on tumblr w those I love my boys so much dude

Although leaves fell down over the New England town and clocks ticked on, it seemed as though time — perhaps life itself as well — had stopped. There was no more first day jitters or long term anxiety, no breathing, no sadness; there was only a light shining through from the center of the universe, standing before him like it was no big deal.

 

“Hi,” the universe smiled wide, sticking his hand out to Todd. “I’m Neil Perry. Your roommate.”

 

“Todd Anderson.” They shook hands. All it took was a simple motion to throw the world back to where it was before, to bring back all his worries and remind him again that today was the first day of school. Sound exploded from the hallway as a boy ran up to their doorway, slamming his hands down hard against the wooden frame.

 

He announced his presence with a yell. “Neil-y Boy! You got a new roommate? How...” he swirled his fingers around the air as if looking for some great word to really pull the sentence together, only to produce “exciting!”

 

Neil was smiling like he was seeing the moon for the first time, stepping around Todd to give a quick and explicitly friendly hug to the nuisance. “Charlie, I think you’re scaring him.” He laughed out the words. Everything about autumn was suddenly a slap in the face, leaving him cold and in an unfamiliar place once more.

 

“We’re seniors now, Neil. I couldn’t scare him if I tried.” Charlie moved his head an incredible amount when he talked.

 

“Well,” Neil mimicked him. “Let him get adjusted before you decide how he feels.” Charlie raised a brow, looking at Neil’s face deeply before running his eyes up and down Todd. There was something like recognition in his eyes.

 

“No problem, sir. I’ll be down the hall if you need anything.” A two finger salute and a wink towards Todd was all that he was sent off with, but least it was over and the door was shut swiftly behind him.

 

So, even with his current status at the very bottom of the social food-chain, this year could turn out alright. Or at least the semester could go somewhere between mediocre and pretty good. Then again, it took an awful lot to make a situation that was so unfamiliar, such as this, considered “pretty good,” judging solely by roommates though?

 

“Don’t let Charlie influence how you think of me, please? He’s the best and worst thing about this place anymore.” Neil shook his head and smiled, eyes rolling momentarily and top teeth clamped lightly down on his lip. “We’re having Latin study group tonight if you wanted to join.”

 

“But… it’s the first day what could there be to study?”

 

“Todd, something you need to learn about Hell-ton is that there’s always something to study. The first day doesn’t mean shit to any of the teachers. And study group never really means study group.”

 

“What does it mean then?”

 

“Doing what you’re normally not allowed to do with the only friends you’ve got.”

 

“They’re not my friends, I don’t want t’bother anyone by being there they probably won’t even like me-“

 

“If they’re my friends, they’re your friends. We’re roommates now and it’s your first year here; someone’s gotta look out for you.”

 

“I- I don’t need anyone looking out for me. I’m fine on my own.”

 

“Jesus, Anderson! Why don’t you just let people be nice to you for once in your life? You’ve got some kind of stick shoved up your ass!”

 

Todd blinked absently, the outburst was so small, so unlike the outbursts of his father or brother, it could have gone unnoticed as anything significant to the untrained eye; but he knew. He knew very well that this act of verbal rebellion was practically unknown to the world of someone like Neil Perry who walked along the lines set out for him without hesitation.

 

“I’ll try and make it if I can.” The small promise of attendance was enough to make Neil begin to smile widely as he had before, eyes bright and glittering as though a thousand suns were reflecting off of them.

 

“You won’t regret it. They’re really not that bad once you get to know them. Now, what’s your first class?”

 

“Uh-“ Todd fumbled with the paper that had been folded neatly and placed in his pocket, looking at the typed schedule with slightly squinted eyes. “Latin? B-52?”

  
“Same as me, I knew they wouldn’t start separating us just yet. Everyone on the floor has the same schedule, so, naturally, you can just follow the pack.”

 

“It seems like that’s the only thing anyone ever does here.”

 

Neil considered this for a moment, then shrugged his pristine shoulders and grabbed his stack of books for the next few classes from his desk. “I guess it mostly is. Coming?” He was already at the open door, waiting for Todd to follow along behind him. The crowd of boys outside, led by the infamous Charlie, were ready to do the exact same as him. Follow the leader to their next location and do as their told without hesitation. Todd fell into the group easily.

 

They had a large chunk of time between class that they decided would be _intro to study group_. The time was taken up, greatly by Todd sitting on a windowsill and watching the others as some did their homework, Meeks and Pitts (all of these people had such strange names) whispered angrily to one another and gestures to the device on the table. He was pretty sure it was a radio.

 

He clicked his pen absently and stared down at the scratched out lines of text before him, most of the words having been gibberish anyways. All that remained from the wrath of his pen was hardly a piece of art.

 

_We ~~are~~  dream ~~ing~~ of ~~a~~  new ~~day~~   **lives**_

_Closed fists of blood and vein ~~and heart~~_

_Today ~~is the day~~  we **beginto** breathe_

_As if_

_Before_

_We were drowning_

 

He stared at the words, they seemed incomprehensible. It was useless, nothing he was saying hadn’t been said before. There was nothing new to write, and especially not by him. He wasn’t good enough for that, and given the reasoning, Todd ripped the paper from his notebook and crumbled it up, tossing it lifelessly to the floor.

 

When the ball fell, Neil looked over as if he had heard it. “Todd! You’re good at Latin, right? Can you help us?” Cameron glanced at him like it was the first time he’d ever seen him, and Charlie let out a breath through his nose, a smug look on his face.

 

“Oh _please_ , Todd! We need your mastery of the Latin language to translate a sentence. It’s not that fucking hard, _Cameron_. Corvus oculum corvi non eruit-“

 

“Since when are _you_ good at Latin?” Who knew Meeks was still paying attention to other people outside of his radio.

 

“Since I haven’t gotten anything lower than a 92 on anything in that class since I got here? So much disrespect in this room. It basically means a crow won’t gouge out the eye of another crow.”

 

“That’s... unpleasant.” Todd mumbled, settling back into his corner. Charlie looked at him, amazed.

 

“It speaks! Finally! I was scared they started putting dead kids in rooms to fill them up.”

 

“Shut up, Charlie. It’s his first day.” Neil was taking long strides towards Todd now, reaching for the paper he had thrown on the ground.

 

“Tough shit! It’s everyone’s first fucking-“

 

The door burst open and in walked the teacher that patrolled their dorms, the old Latin teacher himself. “Charles Dalton, if I have to explain to you one more time that you cannot use that sort of language on campus there will be no more of this study group nonsense!” The radio disappeared into Pitt’s lap and Charlie swept his feet off the table, Neil swiftly picked up the paper and turned around just in front of Todd, who set his own feet on the ground, standing just a few inches lower than his roommate. He could feel Neil’s Adults Only smile even from behind him and wanted to touch his sweater. To tell him to stop because no one would ever be so upset with him that he really needed to use it. “Don’t you all have classes to be getting to?”

 

“Yes sir, absolutely.” Neil spoke for the group. It was probably for the best. “We were all just trying to get a head start on our upcoming assignments for your class.”

 

“Right. Well, you should be getting to the present assignments in other classes. Like the one you’re about to miss.” Cameron checked his watch and the look of panic on his face set off a chain reaction of apologies from the group members and eyes dropped to the floor as they rushed down the hall to English.

 

Study Group had officially been added to the list of things Todd was no longer attending with his new friends.


End file.
